An Interview with 12-Year-Old Tamar Fogel

A week ago Tamar Fogel* was just another 12 year old whose greatest worry was what to dress up as for Purim this year.

But that was 8 days and a lifetime ago…

This moving video below is of an interview conducted last week with Tamar Fogel, the oldest child of the Fogel family of Itamar.

Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi told me that when she visited the Fogel family shiva last week in Jerusalem, Tamar was going from person to person and saying, “Don’t cry! Everything is for the best! Everything is from God!” Rabbanit Yemima predicted that little Tamar, who at such a young age has seen things that no human being should ever have to see, will grow up to be a great leader of the Jewish people.

I spoke on Friday with another friend who visited the Fogel shiva. Ruti Fogel’s mother told my friend that the favorite song of 4-year-old Elad Fogel HY”D was “Kee Heerbeta Tovot Alai” (video below) which means “Because You, God, have performed exceedingly great kindnesses for me.” Ruti’s mother then said, “God has showered us as a family with such a tremendous abundance of gifts. And the truth is that we never asked Him why. And now God has taken away so many of those gifts. And now, too, we are not going to ask Him why…”

What an extraordinary family. My friend told me that the people who came to comfort the mourners found instead that the mourners comforted and inspired them.

None of the members of this family, and especially young Tamar I fear, have an easy road ahead of them.

May Hashem comfort this holy family from this horrific nightmare.

This is the video of “Ki Heerbeta which was the favorite song of 4-year-old Elad Fogel

Image courtesy of Flickr.com user Ted

*A week ago on Shabbat a terrorist entered the Fogel family home in Itamar and murdered Tamar’s parents and three of her siblings. HY”D.

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9 comments

I have been following the story in Itamar because it touches so close to home. Itamar is about twenty minutes away. The family used to live where I live now, Ariel. The more I learn about the Fogel family the more I think b’krovei akadesh. They seem so amazing. This interview brings tears to my eyes.

Thank you so much for translating this Chana! As I watched it in Ivrit this morning I so wished I could understand it…I plan to share this with my family.
Thank you as well for your wonderful blog- a highlight of my week and a real source of inspiration to me.
Shira in Baltimore

These are the words of a mourner in denial – which is the natural state of someone who just suffered an unimaginable tragedy a few days earlier. Ideology is no replacement for her loving parents.
She is going to have to face up to her loss one of these days… but now it is still too early.
May Hashem comfort her. My heart is truly broken for this family.

What incredible power and spirit. I hope Hashem helps her keep that for many long years to come.
I didn’t react half as well when my father was killed by a drunk driver. Here, four years later I still can’t say what Ruti’s mother says.
May we have vheikitzu vraninu shochnei offor already!!!!

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